Today’s world is driven by data. Naturally, information systems must be secure. Business is all about relationship and without proper security protocols in place, your clients will lose their trust in you. While today’s hackers have many ways to breach an organization’s network, data breaches that occur as a result of lax security are unforgivable from a customer standpoint. Some organizations can spend more on security than others, but data security must be a priority, no matter your IT budget.

Here are some of the regulations all business owners and IT administrators should know:

GDPR: The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation is as comprehensive a data protection law as there is. Its aim is to protect the citizens of EU-member countries from data breaches. The GDPR applies to every organization that processes personal information of people residing in the EU.

GPG13: Known as the Good Practice Guide 13, it is the U.K.’s general data protection regulation for organizations that do business in the U.K.

HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act puts several guidelines on how patients’ data is shared and disseminated by insurers and health maintenance organizations.

SOX - The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires corporate records to be kept for seven years to ensure that there is transparency in the accounting. For IT this means being able to have access to data to run reports when called upon.

A business that doesn’t adhere to simple IT regulations probably isn’t adhering to other regulations. Would you want to do business with someone that you know won’t do what’s asked of them to protect YOUR data? Unreputable businesses that are looking to gain an edge by not meeting regulations will pay later for not spending now.

Compliance and Your Business

How will you plan for your company’s compliance? The best way is to educate yourself on what exactly your business needs to plan for by looking at the regulatory mandates, and by seeking out organizations who have already become compliant with their respective industry regulations. This is where a managed IT service provider (MSP) can be helpful. Since we take security compliance extremely seriously, and deal with many businesses across a wide variety of industries, we have the perspective that can provide a clear strategy on how to stay compliant.

Machado Consulting uses sophisticated monitoring, management, and reporting software to reduce risk and put our clients in the best position to prepare for any audits or assessments that need to be completed by regulators. Since the regulatory landscape is constantly changing, our IT professionals are in a unique position to serve as both IT administrator and regulatory consultant.

If you are searching for a way to control your compliance situation, look no further than the IT professionals at Machado Consulting. We can come alongside your organization to help eliminate any risk your organization would have as a result of compliance concerns. Call us at (508) 453-4700 today to get started.

Originally published as “Knowing and Planning for Your Compliance Burden”, June 23, 2018. Updated October 16, 2019.

Being in IT, we’ve seen and heard it all. Between the campfire horror stories of technicians to the outlandish IT conspiracies and ‘home remedies’ that get passed around, we’ve decided to compile a list of some of our favorite IT and technology myths.

When we write about Net Neutrality, we typically write about how it is designed to keep the telecommunications conglomerates, who make Internet service available to individuals on the Internet, honest when laying out their Internet service sales strategy. One way to put it is that without net neutrality in place, the Big Four (which are currently Comcast, Charter, Verizon, and AT&T) have complete control over the amount of Internet their customers can access.

The IT guy, Jacob left last month: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. He left without an exit interview, and he didn’t seem very pleased with the way the situation played out. You could never tell if Scrooge cared or not. His demands have never wavered. He expected perfection and when mistakes were made, they were approached as catastrophic affronts to the sustainability of the business, even if that wasn’t the reality.

Machado Consulting has a team in place to take part in Making Strides against Breast Cancer on October 14th located at Institute Park here in Worcester. If you’d like to join us in walking, or donate to the cause, please find our team page by clicking the link below.